Case
Case (Henry Dorsett Case) is the protagonist of Neuromancer, William Gibson's first novel, and first installment of the Sprawl Trilogy. An antihero, Case is introduced as a drug addict and a former cyberspace hacker. When Armitage offers to cure him in exchange for Case's hacking abilities, he warily accepts the offer. Along the way he has his liver and pancreas modified to biochemically nullify his ability to get high; meets the leatherclad Razorgirl, Molly; hangs out with the drug-infused space-rastas; frees an artificial intelligence (Wintermute), and changes the landscape of the Matrix. Neuromancer is narrated from his point of view, describing his blurry perception and fragmentary memory, suggesting that his cognition is affected by his drug use or addiction. Description Case hails from the Sprawl. He has a Mitsubishi Bank chip that gave his name as Charles Derek May, which he preferred over Truman Starr his name in a fake passport. he is seen with nylon running shoes. He smokes Yeheyuans. He was addicted to drugs, seen specifically to use a potent variety of Brazilian dex in the form of a flat pink octagon pill. Augmentations In order to prevent a pancreas failure, Armitage got him a new pancreas, and plugs in his liver, designed to bypass amphetamine or cocaine, making him biochemically incapable of getting off, and freeing him from his previous dangerous dependency. Background Case hails from the Sprawl, perhaps its northern part. Memories of his childhood included moonscapes with slabs of freeway concrete, broken slag and rusting refineries. When he was 17 he engaged in a fight on a rooftop, while the dawn geodesics glowed rose around him. At some point of his life he visited Istanbul once, for a couple of days. He also visited Paris which had some similarities. When he was 19 years old, he had never touched a cyberspace deck yet but knew it was what he wanted. He was one of the 20 young hopefuls who haunted the Gentleman Loser that summer, watching the older cowboys over expensive beers, hoping they would become a joeboy. Case bought one of them a beer to learn more about Dixie Flatline who was sitting across the bar, learning his feats and breaindeath. Indeed he became Dixie's joeboy and months later they were in Miami; Dixie would remember that he was a "quick study". The legendary Bobby Quine was also his mentor. At 22, he'd been one of the best hackers in the Sprawl; in his youth he was a rustler always in high adrenaline living for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace. He frequented in the bars as a cowboy hotshot, where the elite stance involved contempt for the meatspace. Operating as a console cowboy from a custom deck, he worked for employers who provided software to penetrate the ICE of corporate systems and steal their data, and swore to never make the classic mistake to steal from his employers. But one time he did exactly that, kept something for himself and tried to move it through a fence in Amsterdam. He met his employers in a Memphis hotel, they paid him, but with ways he never learned, they lerned his moves and punished him. They tied him on a hotel bed, hallucinating for 30 hours, as a wartime Russian mycotoxin subtly burned his nervous system micron by micron. Unable to jack into cyberspace any more, it was the end of his career and the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, trapping him forever in the flesh. Life in Chiba When he was 23 he converted all of his assets to a fat sheaf of illegal New Yen, hoping that he would find a cure, in the registered, or illegal, clinics of Chiba City. He spent his first 2 months in Chiba in examinations and consultations, exhausting all his money. The black clinics didn't do anything either, other than admiring the expertise of what afflicted him. During his first month there, he hustled intensely all fresh capital in Ninsei. He'd killed 2 men and a woman over ridiculous sums. He managed to find a position in the criminal ecology of Night City through lies and betrayal, occupiynig the dubious position of a middleman, a necessary evil between the buyer and the seller. He ran the fastest and loosest deals on the street, and built a reputation for getting whatever his clients wanted. Wage was his primary supplier. He had sent a brick of Wage's ketamine to Yokohama and was paid. Feeling high that rainy night, he went to an arcade (the Namban?) and met Linda Lee playing. They ended up together in a portside capsule hotel. Together they bought tickets at the hoverport and made a first trip to Tokyo and Harajuku, ending up in a pachinko parlor. Within a month, the combination of his drugs and intense lifestyle, was toxic to her, and she became addicted too. He was a regular at the Chatsubo bar, often confiding in the robot-armed bartender Ratz. Others Case socialized with included the pimp Lonny Zone; and Julius Deane, a wizened old criminal over a hundred years old. Within a year after his arrival, there was no improvement. He was a depressed, drug-addicted and impoverished hustler, trying to make it through, slept in capsule hotels, took turns and cut corners in Night City; but even then saw the matrix in his sleep, and crying he reaches for a console, grasping temperfoam from his bedslab instead. He entered a self-destructing arc, even no longer carrying a weapon as a basic precaution, a phase obvious to his, ever fewer, customers. Furthermore he almost destroyed his pancreas. Once he'd delayed transfer of a synthetic glandular extract, retailing it for a wider margin than usual. He knew Wage hadn't liked that. A week later he visits Jarre de Thé and Linda Lee tells him that Wage wants him dead. Seeing her troubled, he offers her 50 New Yen, lying that he can get more anytime. He saw a figure stalking him, and thinking that it was an assassin paid by Wage, he tried to avoid it and defend himself. When he was finally caught, she introduced as Molly Millions with a job offer from Armitage. Armitage offered him to correct his neural damage. For this he gave the neurologists of an unnamed clinic an ultra-advanced program of the procedure, so that they will do it to Case for free. They replaced his blood in order to receive a new pancreas, as well as the fluid in his back; a new tissue was patched into his liver and a series of injections restored his neural system. The new pancreas cures him of his drug addiction but also nullifying his ability to experience a high. Case lied to Molly that he must talk to Deane in order to maintain his connections in Singapore, Shinjuku and Asakuza. Actually he wanted Deane to search on Armitage and Screaming Fist but he couldn't help him. After Deane he went to Namban, and paid Wage with Armitage's New Yen. Then returned to Chat. Around the same time, he sees Linda Lee killed at Sammi's. Case accepts the job offer, and begins a new life as a hacker once again. Return to the Sprawl They left Chiba on a hovercraft, then hopped along airports at Narita, Schiphol, Orly. They stayed in the Old City cestion of the Amsterdam-Centrum; Armitage again was off on some business, and walked with Molly past Dam Square and a bar on a Damrak thoroughfare. In Paris she took him shopping. Molly bought him books, tapes, a SimStim deck, French and Italian clothing and a 9-pointed shuriken because she noticed him always looking at them. Before dawn he bought a flat plastic flask of Danish vodka at some kiosk. They ended up in a loft of an abandoned factory where Armitage provides them equipment for their "mission": An Ono-Sendai Cyberspace VII (Molly noted that he hows significant intimacy when he saw the console), an advanced Hosaka computer with a Sony monitor, disks of corporate-grade ICE, a Braun coffee maker; Armitage wanted Case's approval of each piece. He complained that the augmentations didn'tallow him to get high any more; it was then when Armitage reveals that the treatment given to Case's system is temporary: 15 slowly dissolving mycotoxin sacs were bonded to the lining of main arteries, threatening to undo the repair and revert him to his previous state; an enzyme that only he can provide will dissolve the bond, and the sacs will be cleared with a blood change; thus forcing his loyalty to him. Armitage continuously withholds information about the mission from Case and Molly, and at Molly's insistence, the two team up to investigate their mysterious employer. After unpacking he went to a hotel and the pair sat by a concrete fountain discussing about whether Armitage's story with the toxin is true. Then took a tube to Manhattan for breafast. Molly led him through a dozen bars and clubs he'd never seen before. Then took him to Metro Holografix. Afterwards Case had his first use of cyberspace after a long time, and enjoyed it for 5 hours. Molly introduces Case to her old friend the Finn and the Panther Moderns who help them on their mission; Case felt a certain "generation gap" with the youths. Within several weeks Case manages to map the ICE of Sense/Net in order to steal the construct of his former mentor, Dixie Flatline, and to reach Peter Riviera. Armitage asked to cut the ice of Sense/Net within a week. Case was absorbed in its patterns, tracing them and probing for gaps, skirting traps and mapping the route he'd take. Its rainbow pixel maze was the first thing he saw when he woke; he went straight to the deck still naked. Once he remembered Linda Lee, he jacked in and worked for 9 hours. He lost the counting of days but in a total of 9 he provided Armitage with his plan. Unable to hide his satisfaction, he complained that it took longer than he asked. He wrote a custom icebreaker/intrusion program that would link with the Sense/Net systems when Molly needed. Connected with "Brood", the link man of the Moderns between him ("Cutter") and Molly, he jacked in on the appropriate time. The Moderns prepared a diversion for the Sense/Net Pyramid security as he plunged through the ice. During the infiltration he was communicating with Brood and flipped into Molly's sensorium as she strolled the Sense/Net Pyramid. In the matrix, his icebreaker strobed and shifted in front of him, with his hands coding real-time minor adjustments. It reached the 5th gate of the ICE and faked to be a routine transfer from the Los Angeles complex. As he entered, viral subprograms peeled off from the icebreaker, meshing with the gate's code to deflect the upcoming real data. It surged through the gates of the subsystem that controlled security for the research library under the Pyramid. As Molly reached the basement, Case triggered his second program, a carefully engineered virus that attacked the code fabric screening primary custodial commands for the sub-basement that housed the research materials. 6 mins after midnight, it bored a window through the library's command ice. Inside it was an infinite blue space ranged with color-coded spheres strung on a tight grid of pale blue neon. Case began to key a sequence the Finn gave him. He began to glide through the spheres as if he were on invisible tracks and reached the right sphere, punching his way into it. Inside was a chill blue neon vault starless and smooth as frosted glass; he triggered a subprogram that effected certain alterations in the core custodial commands. Then he reversed smoothly, letting the cycling virus to re-knit the window with a hair-fine thread of crimson neon still penetrating the wall. He flipped to Molly and felt agony; she had broken her leg, and notified Brood. Molly temporarily restored herself with dermadiscs, and entered the library. Case exited the matrix drenched in sweat; he wiped himself, drank water and checked the map of the library on the screen to see how far Molly is from the construct; 5 more and 10 to her left and said so to Brood. Once Molly stood before the right cabinet, Case sent a command through the crimson thread that fooled 5 separate alarm systems and the 3 locks of the door; he planted in the memory of the central bank the information that the item was removed a month ago per executive order and erasing the records so that the "authorisation" would not be found. Once finished, the crimson line was withrawn into the icebreaker and the system was reversed, the subprograms whirled back into the core of the program as the ICE gates were closing behind. Then he watched Molly's escape reaching the Moderns outside. Later he was joined by Armitage and the leader of Moderns Lupus Yonderboy who said that Molly is in good hands. Case insisted to Armitage that he should pay him now. When they left, at dawn he exited the loft deep in thoughts, pondering on the toxic sacs and the people who killed in Chiba. A battered tricycle-truck with mirrored windows bounced past him, with empty plastic cylinders in its bed. Then Lupus showed up saying he has a message, "Wintermute", before disappearing in his chameleon suit. He went to Baltimore and joined Molly who had healed, not wanting to listen anything. Then they went to the Finn where they found out that Wintermute is an A.I. belonging to Tessier-Ashpool and Molly handed him a paper with coordnates given to her by the Moderns, which Case identified as London. Molly left for the loft and Case was drinking steadily. The he took a trans-BAMA local. Inside the car he noticed a pair of predatory Christian Scientists approaching a trio of 2 young office tech girls. Stepping out, he noticed an advertisement for Freeside, and first time he noticed a little logo of T-A. Back in the loft, he connected Dixie's construct and reunited with dixie in the matrix. He guided him to Copenhagen, the fringes of the university section where they found the entry code of Bell Europa. Case tapped his way into Bell Europa and switched to a standard phone code, connecting with Armitage's database in London. His Hosaka sifted for owner's personal history, and learned the history of Colonel Willis Corto during and after the War. Istanbul After apprehending Peter Riviera, Molly took him to Topkapi museum. There Case told her about his finding in the London database. They speculated that the computer and/or Wintermute, through the computer in the French hospital, pulled him out of it and built his persona probably without knowing his past identity. Molly tasked Case with talking directly to Wintermute, and, since Case thought it was impossible to hack an Artificial Intelligence, to ask Flatline's help. After that they went to Beyoglu for breakfast. In the liner, while flying above Greece, he drank bourbon but Riviera made a trick, causing a giant sperm to appear in his glass. After threatened by Molly and Armitage, he made appear a rose for him. Case got into the deep temperfoam couch of the JAL shuttle, and as teh steward was attaching readout trodes to his wrist and left eat, Molly explained to him the effects of SAS, panicking him. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down that the shuttle is no different than an airplane. the SAS was worse than he thought but passed quickly and could sleep. Freeside The Finn also helps them discover the truth about Armitage who (as well as Molly and Case) is working for an A.I. named Wintermute. Since Wintermute is capable of killing humans who disobey him, and since they're getting paid anyway, Molly and Case go along with the mission, but try to remain one step ahead of their dangerous employer. Wintermute eventually reveals himself to both Molly and Case, though separately, taking the form of people from their memories to speak with them. To Molly he appears as the Finn; to Case he appears as both the Finn and Julius Deane. The mission winds up involving one more dubious character, the psychotic holo-artist Peter Riviera, who Molly and Case assist in kidnapping and "recruiting." Their mission eventually takes them off-world to the Freeside space colony, where Wintermute plans to merge with another A.I. called Neuromancer. Throughout the mission, Case's view of the world and himself change tremendously, as he forms new relationships with other characters, particularly Molly. Case eventually visits a beach construct, where he meets the A.I. recreation of Linda Lee, and speaks to Wintermute's "other half," Neuromancer , who takes the form of a little boy. Despite several unexpected obstacles, the mission is a success, with Wintermute merging with Neuromancer. Although Armitage is killed before he is able to give Case the antidote for his condition, the Zionites are able to help Case, ensuring that he can continue to "jack." By the end of the book, Case decides that he no longer drugs, or even cyberspace (at least not as desperately as before), and begins a new life, free of addictions of any kind. He parts ways with Molly, and never sees her again. Ultimate Fate: Though Case doesn't appear in any other books, his ultimate fate can be inferred from lines at the end of Neuromancer, and his mention in Mona Lisa Overdrive. By the end of Neuromancer, Case has left Chiba City, and "found a girl who called herself Michael." The last line of the book is, "He never saw Molly again" In Mona Lisa Overdrive, the Finn states that, last he heard anyway, Case was married with four children. It's plausible that "Michael" is the woman Case married (given that she was important enough to be mentioned by name when Gibson hinted at Case's future at the end of Neuromancer). Relationships: Case's most closely-examined relationship in the story is with Molly, who becomes something of a "friend with benefits" to him. Though they have at least one sexual encounter, their relationship never seems to become "romantic," instead playing out like that of two platonic friends. Case and Molly develop a close bond despite--or perhaps because of--the fact that both are self-serving antiheroes who rarely "open up" to or show concern for other people. Molly ultimately reveals that she was drawn to Case because he reminded her of a dead lover, Johnny Mnemonic. After the Straylight run however, Molly leaves without telling Case goodbye in person, instead leaving a note asking him not to take her actions personally, to to accept that "it's just the way I'm wired." Case seems to accept that their relationship is over, and finds a new girl named Michael. The last line of the book states that he never saw Molly again. Case's relationship with Linda Lee is fairly similar to the one he has with Molly; though he once was romantically involved with Linda, they are just friends by the start of Neuromancer, and his experience with her in the beach construct seems to offer him much-needed closure. Unlike his relationship with Molly however, Case's friendship with Linda comes with a strong sense of guilt, not only for her death, but for introducing her to the drugs that she wound up becoming addicted to. Case gets along well with most of the other characters in the book, but never seems to develop any close relationships with any of them. After the events of Neuromancer, Case marries and has four children, presumably leading a normal life (or as normal as anyone in the Sprawl can have). Category:Characters Category:Characters in the Sprawl trilogy Category:Characters in Neuromancer Category:Hackers